The garden has risen!

According to my grandmother and great aunt all the "signs" pointed to April 7th being the best day to plant our gardens.  We rambled around all that day getting everything ready, tilling, planting, and watering.  It was near dark when Tim and I finished.

Ten days later I was rewarded with sprouts all around.  And at this point I have many plants already several inches tall.  This is one of my green bean sprouts from yesterday.  It's just over three inches all.

Isn't it pretty?!  I'm quite happy with the growth we're having and even my trash can potatoes have sprouted up high enough for me to add another layer of dirt.  I'm still holding out hope for an excellent growing season and bountiful harvest. 

I'm looking forward to trying my hand at canning this year, but only if I grow more than the kids will devour fresh out of the garden.  By the end of the growing season I'll know if the garden will need to be expanded next year to accomplish a big winter stockpile.  Over the years I've learned that gardening is more about trial and error than having a green thumb.  Only this year I'm keeping my trials and errors on paper to refer back to next year.  ;)

Happy Growing!

A week in the coop.

A little over a week ago I finally broke down and put my six young Barred Plymouth Rock chicks in the coop with my three Rhode Island Reds.  I read all the information about integrating new chicks into a preexisting flock and the dangers and precautions to be taken.

I expected the worse, but hoped for the best.

A week later, I'm happy to say that all the chicks are still alive, not having been flogged or pecked to death by the hens.  And all the hens are still laying every day, not having been flustered into non-production status by the wild youngsters running around.

This is my first time being able to see the establishment of a pecking order when adding young ones.  It's quite odd to see the big one just go off an peck at a passing little one.  For no good reason other than to just say, "Hey, you little squirt, get the heck away from me!"  LOL.

The little ones haven't ventured too far from the coop.  On some days they don't even come out of the coop.  And when a hen comes inside, oh boy, you better watch out.  The little ones squawk and clamour all over each other to see who can get furthest into the corner, as far away from the hens as chickenly possible.

I'm hoping they'll all settle down soon and get to liking each others' company.  :)

Brown Easter Eggs

My first batch of chicks started laying eggs toward the end of last summer, so this was our first Easter without a single white, store-bought egg in the house.  I really wondered if I would have to rush out & buy a dozen white eggs just for the kids to color.

However, to my surprise, the brown eggs from our Rhode Island Reds colored up just as beautiful and a bit more unique than any white egg I've ever used.

Since I have a stash of egg coloring kits (all purchased at major discounts after the holiday over the years), I didn't want to buy anything new to color eggs.  We pulled out a kit and started boiling our eggs.  One dozen into the pot, four for each child.  One dozen came out of the boiling water and straight into an ice bath.  Instant cooling!

Okay, let me just say that yellow doesn't work well with brown eggs.  The one we tried turned out a weirdly, sick-looking BLAH.  Orange was a bit iffy, but the kids seemed satisfied with it.  Me, well I loved the reds, purples, blues, and greens.  My youngest took a crayon to hers before we dyed them, thus the wild and crazy designs on the three right eggs.

Something that really struck a cord with me is how the same color can look completely different on each egg.  Take green for example. In the picture there are three green eggs (top, left, right), but each one is a different shade of green. There's not more than a minute of dying time difference between them, but the colors are sooooo different.

The girls and I declared brown Easter eggs a success, and I didn't even have to go to the store!  Oh, and all twelve eggs disappeared with extra-speedy swiftness by the end of the day.  I'm surprised none of the kids had tummy aches.  LOL!  I'm happy with the egg colors--so rich and vibrant--and we will definitely be using our brown eggs in the future.